5 YouTube channels that will help you learn English

If there’s one thing students like, it’s free stuff! And if you’re studying (or planning on studying) in an English-speaking country and you’re not from one yourself, no doubt you’ll want to brush up on your language skills every once in a while.

If you do want to improve your English language skills in a quick and easy way, then YouTube is your friend.

Not only are the videos free, informative and easy to access, they are also often pretty fun, too.

Woohoo! Free and fun! Source: Giphy

You improve your pronunciation by hearing how words are really said by real people – and not just the Google Translate bot! The videos also improve your listening skills and understanding of how people talk and interact, something you can’t authentically grasp from the pages of a textbook.

Most videos are pretty short as well, letting you learn in a bite-size way, taking on little bits of information, breaking things down and allowing the information to sink in more effectively, making it easier to recall.

There are literally thousands of helpful YouTube channels out there for you to discover but here are five of our favourites to get you started…

This channel is perfect if you want to understand how people in the UK really talk to each other. Easy English is a part of the channel Easy Languages, where people on the streets chat to interviewers so students can hear how people really interact in a number of countries and languages.

In Easy English, interviews are conducted with people on the UK’s streets about all manner of different topics.

The videos are usually between 3 and 5 minutes long and give you a real taste of how the English language is spoken in practice, not just in the classroom.

Fancy something with more of a focus on the US? The lessons from Voice of America (VOA) are varied from everyday grammar to idioms, ‘English in a minute’ lessons which do what they say on the tin and lessons on words used commonly in the news.

Some are even set up like a news report on the television, however, there’s a twist! The ‘news reporters’ are actually professional English teachers who present the ‘news’ in simple language, slightly slower than the breakneck-speed way the news is usually read and with subtitles available to help you follow.

Many of the videos are also role play many basic situations for new English-speakers.